Happily Forever After
by Koinaka
Summary: All fairy tales have happy endings, but that doesn't mean the journey is an easy one. When things don't turn out as Isabella Swan expects, will she give up before she discovers true love? Don't worry... it's EXB
1. Prologue

Prologue

A Not So Conventional Fairytale

_I never believed in fate or destiny. Well, that's not exactly true. I never cared enough to believe in it or even think about it for that matter. Of course, times were very different, and as a woman in the 1700's fate or destiny meant very little. We grew up and if we were lucky, we would be married to a kind man that we may grow to love. We would raise a family, grow old, and eventually die. It's easy to see why I was so complacent with fate. It didn't matter to me. I do, however, believe in irony. I mean, who doesn't enjoy a bit of irony? See, I find great irony in the fact that I never believed in fate or destiny, yet fate has decided it believed in me – even if it did take a while to work itself out. It wasn't until two centuries after my death I realized the real irony of my circumstances, and by that time, it was pointless to resist. The damage was already done. _

_What was so ironic, you ask? As a human, I fell in love with a vampire, and as a vampire I fell in love with a human. Not the sort of thing that happens every day. In fact, I seem to be the exception of every rule, but we're getting ahead of ourselves now, aren't we? _

_I'm sure you're overwrought with curiosity by now, right? If not, that's quite alright. I'll readily admit that most of my life has been dull and uneventful – I'm not so unique in that aspect. However, it does have a happy ending – well, as much as it can end, but I'm getting ahead of myself once again. Well, let's start, shall we?_

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Isabella Swan_... Wait, you say this doesn't sound like a fairy tale? Well, I'll admit that it's a bit unconventional, considering the majority of the players are mythical creatures better suited for horror stories, but the sentiment is the same. Now, if I may continue…_

Isabella Swan was not like other girls her age. Other girls – in fact _every _other girl she knew – would take great pleasure in attending as many balls as humanly possible. Isabella, on the other hand, would prefer reading to dancing. She thought balls were for finding husbands, and that was yet another area that Isabella differed from every other seventeen year old girl. She cared nothing about obtaining that elusive jewel that was known as the perfect man. Isabella – or Bella as she was apt to be called – loved romance as much as the next girl, but she knew what others did not. Happy endings only happened in books. To believe otherwise would be foolish, and Bella was no fool.

Unfortunately for Bella, she had little control over her life, so while she does not enjoy attending balls – if asked on the wrong day, she might even tell you she'd rather be fed to rabid dogs than go – she attended them frequently. Perhaps she would enjoy them more if her dancing was not a hazard to English society as a whole. If Bella were being honest, she would have admitted that balls – minus the hazardous dancing, of course – were relatively painless. It's the pomp and circumstance that preceded the ball that she absolutely loathed. She was not really privy to knowledge about ancient torture methods but she expected them to be much similar to what she was forced to go through every time she was dressed for a ball. By the time she arrived at said ball, she had been poked, prodded, pinched, and practically stitched into a corset two sizes smaller than she was.

The night this tale began was no different than any other night, or any other ball for that matter. She was sitting with her cousins listening to them chatter on about this man and that man. She didn't speak because to speak would require a full breath and she did not have that. She had already been forced to dance with two vile men, and when she saw the third man began to walk towards her, she panicked.

Her cousin, Lizzie, saw the panic in her eyes and giggled. She leaned in to Bella and murmured in her ear. "My poor Isabella, run along and I'll distract him for you."

Bella smiled and left the table as quickly as she could without fear of fainting. She did not understand her popularity at these events. She was not half as beautiful as the other girls here, with her plain brown hair and brown eyes. Nevertheless, her cousin distracting a persistent man was par for the course, and she knew she would never survive these events if not for her Lizzie.

She managed to duck into the crowd and miss her next would-be dance partner when she saw _him_. He was standing in the corner alone, and Bella was sure her eyes were playing tricks on her because that man could not possibly be real. Man really did not seem to be a fitting word for him. He was tall and blonde and positively beautiful. He looked more like an angel than a man, and it was not too difficult for Bella to imagine him as one. He had an ethereal quality to him, but the thing Bella noticed right away is the sadness etched on his face and in his eyes. Before she had time to think of the consequences, she found her feet moving towards him. She wanted to do something – anything – to remove the sadness she found there.

She heard someone calling her name in the background and in the split second it took her to turn around, the blonde haired man was gone, leaving nothing behind, but his memory and a sweet scent.

She went back to where her cousins were convened and noticed how they watched her approach with great interest. She sat down with what she can only assume was the silliest grin they have ever seen plastered on her face. She discovered then that she believed in love at first sight – of course, this would not happen for another two-hundred years, but she doesn't know that yet. Her cousins exchanged a look and erupted into a fit of giggles.

"Our Izzie is in love!" they squealed in unison.

"I hate being called Izzie," she muttered, but much to her dismay, she couldn't find it in her to deny the second charge.

Over the next fortnight, Bella could think of nothing else but the blonde-haired man. She was desperate – absolutely desperate – to discover the identity of the mysterious man who managed to haunt her every moment – waking or not. She went willingly to every ball, dinner, and event that was held in hopes of seeing him again.

But all of her ball attendances were in vain. In the end, she discovered his name through her cunning use of subterfuge – a pathetic combination of tears and pleading to her dear uncle who could refuse her nothing. His name was Carlisle Cullen.

Months passed by and Bella had yet to meet or see. Carlisle Cullen again – other than in her dreams, of course. Sensing her distress, her uncle organized an outing into town to raise Bella's spirits. Bella decided to humor her uncle and go along with the trip, although she knew nothing short of seeing him again will cheer her up. Given the circumstances, she was still happy for the distraction the trip would hold.

She was walking with her cousins while they discussed the ball they would be attending two nights from then when she saw him. Their eyes locked for a moment, and then he was gone again. She automatically slowed her pace. She knew she was going to follow him; she just had to do it at the right moment. Her cousins were so entranced in their conversation; they didn't even notice that she was no longer next to them. When she was satisfied they were far enough ahead, she darted in the direction she thought he went.

In life, there are defining moments that forever change the course of your life. For Bella Swan, that was her defining moment. It was the moment that would result in her death, but also would ensure that she was around to meet her soul-mate.

It didn't take long for her to realize she was lost. There was no sign of Carlisle and she started to believe – as she wandered aimlessly – that she may not have seen him at all. Just when she decided she should turn around, she caught another glimpse of blonde hair. Tired of wandering the streets, she called out for him to stop.

Bella gasped as he turned around; a red-eyed demon in front of her was definitely not Carlisle. She tried to tell her legs to run, but she was paralyzed with fear and before she could even scream, she felt a pair of razor-sharp teeth pierce her skin. She heard a snarl behind her and just as suddenly as the teeth were placed in her neck; they were gone. She collapsed to the ground as the fire began burning through her veins. She wasn't sure how long she stayed on the ground, but eventually, a pair of cold arms picked her up and cradled her to his chest. One of Bella's eyes fluttered open, and she saw _him_. The blonde-haired man had saved her. Perhaps he really _was_ an angel, or so she thought at the time.

He was running faster than Bella imagined possible. If she hadn't been in so much pain, she probably would have been terrified, incredibly terrified. He was murmuring words to her, but she couldn't concentrate on them. She was being held prisoner by the pain. She was vaguely aware of him laying her down on a bed of sorts and telling her it would all be over in a few days, but the fire pulled her under before she could respond to ask what exactly it was that would be over.

She thought the pain would never end. She begged, pleaded, lamented, cried, but nothing seemed to work. Why had this happened to her? She had been a good daughter, niece, cousin. She certainly did not deserve this pain, yet it continued on, unabated until at last it left her cold and surprisingly numb.

_ And so they lived happily ever after. _

_ Oh? You don't believe me? Perceptive, aren't you? Well, you're right. This was really only the beginning. You want to hear the rest of the story, do you? Well, I suppose I could be persuaded to tell you the rest._


	2. Her Prince Charming?

**Author's Note: This is just a reminder that this story does end up E/B in the future. I hate having to say this, but I just don't want people panicking if they think this is C/B. All cannon couples in the future & as always, I don't own this. **

Chapter One

Her Prince Charming…?

The first thing Bella saw when she woke up to the half-life she had been cursed to was Carlisle. She remembered who he was, though very little of her other human memories remained. She listened as he explained to her what had happened and what she now was. She should have been surprised, shocked, distraught, but Bella was none of those things. She found herself being relieved. She'd always known something was different about Carlisle, the man with the ethereal beauty, and she was happy that she knew what it was. He was a vampire, and now she was as well. It was confusing at first. Her senses were chaotic; the sights, the smells – oh the smells – the sounds, not to mention the thoughts.

She and Carlisle weren't sure how it happened, but she could hear every thought that ran through his head, and every other head for that matter. There were no humans for miles, but she could hear their thoughts as well. It was overwhelming to hear the thoughts that passed through the minds of humans – with their simplicity and their incredible selfishness. Unlike Carlisle, whose thoughts were nothing less than pure and completely self-less.

He taught her how to hunt and use her new strength. She spent most of that first day mesmerized by her own reflection. She wasn't vain by any means. She simply found it hard to believe the girl in the mirror was herself.

The reality of her current situation did not set in until later that first day. Carlisle's home was fairly secluded, probably miles away from the village she met her demise in and certainly a great distance from where Bella's family resided, so he never had to worry about humans wandering about. The instant the scent hit Bella she knew she wanted it, whatever it was. No deer or feline or bear could match that scent, so she took off, determined to have it. Carlisle caught her and tried to restrain her. He was strong, but Bella was powered with newborn strength and a body full of her old blood and quickly got away. The man was dead before Bella even knew what had happened.

The next few months went by in a haze of anger and blood. Carlisle took them far into the wilderness and there they stayed. He was by her side every moment of every day, her constant companion, and she resented him for it. They fought a great deal of the time – well, she fought because their fights were always one-sided. Most of the fights were spurred by her never-ending thirst, some of them spurred by the feelings she harbored about him – feelings which he was blissfully unaware of. He never lost his temper with her. Carlisle was a good man. He was kind and caring. There was not an ounce of insincerity in his entire body, and Bella knew it – better than anyone else because she could hear his thoughts!

She hated the small house they were living in, hated their life. She was bored and restless. She yearned to leave the house, if only for a brief visit to the nearest village, but her control was nearly nonexistent. She hadn't killed since that first day, and she had no desire to do so, but simply the faint scent of a human was enough to send her into a frenzy. Though the memory of the taste of the man's blood remained with her always, she would not allow herself to take another life. Not when her life had already been taken from her.

Eventually, the lust for human blood subsided a bit, and Carlisle began slowly introducing her into human society once again. Her anger had also rescinded, and she was beginning to feel more like her old self. She no longer resented Carlisle or his presence. He was only trying to protect the humans that lived nearby and prevent her from killing again. He knew how much that first day weighed on her conscience. Her introduction to the world again was slow. They spent hours upon hours walking and talking growing closer to villages but never entering. It was everything she'd hoped for – being with Carlisle this way. She wanted more, but they had an eternity for those things.

Each day they traveled closer and closer to the village, and each day it got easier for Bella to be around the humans. It was the two year anniversary of her death when she finally was able to walk among the streets of the village with Carlisle. She'd had to hold her breath and swallow incessantly to fight the flow of venom, but Carlisle's arm was linked only loosely with hers unlike the other times when he'd had to hold her like one might restrain a wild animal.

Time has a different meaning for the eternally damned. Months pass by in the span of what feels like only days, and years are like months. Carlisle and Bella wandered around England for several years before they finally decided to travel to France. Bella was excited, of course, but she was a bit wary.

"France, Carlisle? Surely you don't expect us to travel by boat. I have better control now, but I do not think it's wise to put the lives of innocent humans in jeopardy. What of the sunlight?" Bella asked.

Carlisle laughed his first real laugh in months. "Bella, there's no need for us to travel by boat when we can swim!"

Realization hit Bella then, and she waited for the warmth of blood to pool beneath her skin like it did when she was a human girl, but it never came.

"Of course," she said.

She managed to laugh with Carlisle, not because she found it funny, but because it made her happy when Carlisle was happy. He'd been so forlorn recently, and Bella wished she could help him out of the depression he'd fallen into. He wanted more meaning in his life, something to fill this wretched existence. He'd been studying, pouring through every medical text, science book he could get his hands on. He wanted to become a doctor; it was all he talked about. Bella loved the way his eyes lit up with passion when he talked about his dreams of being better than the monster that lurked below the surface. He was so animated, so jubilant, Bella swore that she do whatever it took to make him look like that, feel like that, forever.

"I've never traveled outside of England, you know," he exclaimed as they walked to the English Channel.

"Neither have I," she replied with a smile.

"Well, here we go!" Carlisle said and they both dove into the churning water below them.

At first, swimming felt strange to Bella. It was the breathlessness that made her uncomfortable. Though they didn't need to breathe, it was second nature. She felt the loss of her sense of smell acutely. She soon became accustomed to it. It was exhilarating, much like running. Bella couldn't help but grin as they made their approach to the land. It was times like these, she was happy to be a vampire. The strength and amplified senses made doing things such as these easier for her.

The two vampires emerged from the water and erupted into a fit of giggles. Carlisle's laughter flowed through her, over her, like the tinkling of a thousand bells, each more beautiful than the last. They fell onto the coast, breathing heavily as if their very lives depended on it.

"France! I'm in France! What would my father say if he saw me now?" Carlisle asked, his voice triumphant, happier than she'd ever heard it before. Bella did not answer; she knew it was more a rhetorical question. She turned her gaze towards him and what she saw took her breath away.

Carlisle was smiling, truly smiling. He looked radiant, practically glowing, as if he were an angel – just as she thought the first night she saw him. His blonde hair was wet from the water and it was plastered against the alabaster skin of his forehead and face. His topaz eyes sparkled. They stared at one another for a few seconds before Carlisle leaned in and pressed his lips softly to hers. Just as suddenly, it was over. He pulled away, and Bella pushed his wet hair out of his face. If she didn't know better, she would have expected to hear her heart pounding in her chest. They stared at one another for several moments before Carlisle broke the peaceful silence.

"Shall we?" Carlisle asked, standing up and holding his hand out to help her up.

"Where to first?" was Bella's reply as Carlisle grabbed her hand and pulled her down the coast.

So began their journey through France. They traveled through the French countryside by night and found shelter in different places to stay during the sunny hours of the day. There sun was not hidden by the grey layer of clouds that plagued them in England. This made Bella feel an array of emotions. The sunlight was intoxicating. When she was able to lie in the sun – for any amount of time – the sun would seep into her cold body warming her. Yet she yearned to be free to walk through the streets on those warm sunny days. So while she loved the sun, she hated the confines it placed on her. She was tired of hiding, tired of hopelessly wandering.

"Are you happy?" Carlisle asked her one night after they hunted. The moon was high causing his skin to sparkle slightly. They had been in France for a few months, and the euphoria they shared on their arrival had dissipated. Restlessness now plagued Bella, and Carlisle had fallen back into the depression that seemed to consume him at times.

She smiled at him. "I want to be," she murmured.

He sighed and squeezed her hand. "My father used to say that vampires were demons with no souls; that they were damned. Do you believe that?"

Bella hesitated and felt the absent blood in her veins run cold. "Don't you?" she inquired, watching him quizzically with one of her brown eyebrows raised.

A variety of emotions flickered across his face before a look of sheer determination settled. "I have to believe there is hope for us, Bella. I _have_ to."

The intensity of Carlisle's gaze mesmerized Bella. She couldn't take her eyes off of him. "Hope for what?" she asked softly though she didn't need to. She knew the real reason they'd left England. Carlisle hoped to escape the ghosts of his past, the memories of his father that haunted him, but still she asked. She wasn't sure why she did so. Perhaps she just wanted to hear his soothing voice; perhaps she hoped he would be able to convince her that there could be more than this pointless existence for them.

"That one day – should we perish – we can walk down the streets of gold. I never agreed with many of the things my father chose to do, the innocent people he tortured and killed in the name of religion and God, but there _is_ a God, Bella. You cannot have the bad without the good. I know he exists, and I think if I can find a way to help people, to use the advantages I have to save lives, that I may be able to redeem myself in his eyes," he was speaking quickly, fervently. Bella could hear the sincerity in his words; feel the desperation behind his reasons. He needed to believe that God was out there, needed to believe that they were not damned, that they had hope. In that moment, Bella could see him; the real Carlisle – the boy who wanted his father's approval, the man who lost his life because of the madness his father suffered from. Decades later, Carlisle was still chasing demons; only now they were his own, not his father's.

Bella reached out and brushed a lock of golden hair off of his forehead. They were now sitting in the cottage they lived in, the flames from the fire causing shadows to dance on the walls behind them.

"If there is a God, Carlisle, I have no doubt that you belong wherever he resides. You are by far the most compassionate, caring, honest man I've ever met," she said with a sigh. "When I first saw you, I thought you were an angel, and you were. You saved me. I would have certainly died had you not intervened. Not only did you save me from death, but you saved me from myself. Every day you save me from myself. If ever anyone deserves to walk down the golden roads, it's you."

He rose up on his elbows and looked down on Bella with some foreign emotion in his eyes. He ran his hand down her cheek, causing a shiver to go through her. "I came across a peculiar scent today," he said after several minutes.

"Peculiar how?" Bella asked, perplexed.

"I believe it was another vampire. You're the only vampire I've been around for any period of time, but I am sure that this scent belonged to one," he insisted.

Bella laughed. "Perhaps we should investigate further tomorrow. It does get rather dull with only you to converse with."

That was of course a lie. Bella felt like she could survive forever as long as she was with Carlisle. She didn't need any other vampires, or humans for that matter.

His eyes were alight with curiosity. "Tomorrow then!" he exclaimed.

Bella sighed as Carlisle continued talking about the possibility of another traveling companion and the state of their eternal souls. Her mind began to drift back to the elusive scent Carlisle spoke of. She had to admit that while she was excited about meeting another, she also felt a great deal of trepidation. She couldn't shake the idea that everything was about to change.

_ It seemed like such an inconsequential thing at the time – running across another vampire – but it was another of those small moments that set a course for her future, another moment that laid a brick on the path leading her to her true love. It would be a long journey to finding true love, but all good things come to those who wait, and this was no exception. _


	3. AN

I am sorry to say that I am no longer involved in the Twilight fandom except for the Harry Potter/Twilight fanfiction I am currently working on. I am sorry to have begun these stories and to leave them untouched for so long, but I simply am not interested in finishing them.

_However_, I am putting all three (Fatal Temptation, Happily Forever After, and If there were no monsters and no magic) up for adoption. If you are interested, please send me a message with your ideas and a sample of your writing. I am willing to assist anyway I can -- if you are interested in what direction I was going in.

~Thanks for reading and reviewing,  
_Koinaka _


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